Discerning Truth in Perilous Times of Manipulation :: By Bill Wilson

There is so much information available to us every day that it is increasingly difficult to discern the truth. The big high-tech firms are manipulating the news that you see and what you learn from your search results. Politicians, like always, twist the facts to their benefit. Propaganda is probably at an all-time high. So how do you discern the truth? How do you make decisions in your life based on good information? What guides you?

These are questions that are becoming increasingly important, because deception is free and enticing while truth is expensive and fleeting. Fact of the matter is that we are living in an information age where free speech is so abused that lies affect who we are and what we do.

Breitbart News turned up an internal communication at Google admitting that there are huge teams in the organization working to censure information they deem is not appropriate for the public.

Breitbart reports:

“The comments came to light in a leaked internal discussion thread, started by a Google employee who noticed that the company had recently changed search results for “abortion” on its YouTube video platform, a change which caused pro-life videos to largely disappear from the top ten results. In addition to the “manual approach,” [Daniel] Aaronson (Google’s “trust and safety” team) explained that Google also trained automated “classifiers” – algorithms or “scalable solutions” that correct “problems” in search results.“

This was just one example. The communication, according to Breitbart, also showed interventions on “search results related to progressive activist David Hogg and Democrat politician Maxine Waters.” A Google spokeswoman, however, insisted to Breitbart that “Google has never manipulated or modified the search results or content in any of its products to promote a particular political ideology.” Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai emphatically testified to Congress that there was no manipulation by Google, but the internal communication “took issue with Pichai’s remarks, stating that it “seems like we are pretty eager to cater our search results to the social and political agenda of left-wing journalists.”

People are influenced by what they read, hear and see. Decisions are made. Beliefs are developed. Powers are using the information superhighway to manipulate politics, shape values, and control decisions. The scale of this manipulation is historic because never before have people been so connected with so few companies controlling the information.

So how do you discern the truth?

As Christ said in John 16:13, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”

Know your values and weigh everything against them. If it doesn’t align, it is likely not true. That inner voice of the Holy Spirit guides us if we so allow it. In society the scales of truth are compromised; but, in the Holy Spirit, truth is pure.